


Odo Holonovel v2.0

by NervousAsexual



Series: Odo Writes a Holonovel [6]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-24 19:25:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10748229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NervousAsexual/pseuds/NervousAsexual
Summary: In the security office there was a box that the constable had left behind. Inside was a single memory stick, and it was labeled, simply, "Quark."





	Odo Holonovel v2.0

A piercing whistle tore through the train. Another stop flew past the windows. The train could not slow down, for somewhere onboard was a bomb and a bomb-maker.

Also onboard, though in a known location, was a corpse.

Detective Odo stood over the corpse, examining it intently. His cloak billowed behind him. His deerstalker was tilted at a rakish angle. His frown was deep and concerned.

"S'a lot of blood," Deputy Quark commented. "Get it, Odo? S'a lot of blood."

"Indeed," said Odo, for chewing complacently on the corpse's leg was a great Vulcan sehlat. "But who is our victim? And why would some one set a sehlat on him?"

"Probably they didn't like him. They probably just couldn't bear it anymore."

Odo grunted in response.

"Get it, Odo? Bear it?"

For a moment Odo looked as if he were going to fling Quark off the train as it tore at full speed through the countryside, but he recovered. "The tricorder, if you please, deputy."

"Bear it," Quark repeated, bringing out a tricorder and scanning the corpse from a healthy distance. "Bear it, Odo."

 Odo gazed out the window at the snowy forest rushing by.

The tricorder beeped in a friendly manner and Quark gave it a good looking-at.

"Well?"

"Fascinating."

"What does it say, Quark?"

"I have no idea. I don't speak science."

Odo took the tricorder from him and examined it. "It would appear the victim is Ambassador Velik, the Vulcan envoy to Qo'noS."

Quark tried to whistle but mostly sprayed spit onto himself and Odo. "Klingons, huh? Somehow it's always Klingons."

 "It's a bit premature to assume Klingons did this."

"For you, maybe."

Odo tucked the tricorder into the folds of his cloak. "Our first act should be to determine how the sehlat was brought on board."

"It's somebody's pet," guessed Quark.

"This is a passenger train. Pets are not allowed and would have been turned away at boarding."

"It was beamed aboard."

"There are shields preventing anyone from beaming into or out of the train."

"It's a changeling?"

Odo scanned the sehlat with his tricorder and shook his head.

"Okay," Quark said. "Fine. How about this. The killer works somewhere on the train, maybe in security. They don't make enough latinum to spit at so they have gone into the business of smuggling exotic animals. Before the passengers boarded the train the killer brought the sehlat on and stored it in the ambassador's compartment--that way they knew the climate controls would be adjusted to Vulcan standard. But in order to keep the sehlat from being discovered by other passengers or something it had to be drugged and then stuffed in the overhead bins. They're new to this smuggling thing, though, and they don't know how much drugs a sehlat would need and they underdosed it, causing the sehlat to wake up before the trip was over. And like any warm-blooded mammalian type creature, the sehlat wanted both food and sex went it awoke. But because there were no female sehlats to be found, it had to make do with eating the ambassador."

Odo was staring at him, a hand over his mouth and a look of both disgust and concern on his face. "And the bomb?"

Quark looked blank. "What bomb?"

"The bomb that is somewhere on this train. The bomb that was mentioned in this note." Odo held out a padd.

Quark frowned. "When did we find out about the bomb?"

"Before we found out about the deceased ambassador. It was literally the first thing mentioned when you started this holonovel."

Quark shrugged.

 "Okay." Odo looked back at the sehlat. "We'll start by scanning the train for common bomb components. The transport shields will prevent us from screening via satellite so we'll have to go car by car. As for... Deputy, what are you doing."

Quark climbed up onto the seat to look in the overhead bin. "He's an ambassador. He's got money. He's also dead and he doesn't need it anymore." He felt around in the bin and finally located a suitcase, which he pulled to the ground.

"Quark," Odo complained. "There is nothing to buy in this simulation. Whatever is in there is irrelevant."

Quark bit the suitcase lock, splintering it into little pieces. Inside was a stash of clothing, a container of blue eye shadow, and a small snowglobe with a winding key on the side. When wound it played "[Falor's Journey](https://youtu.be/ic5WbaziHa4?t=1m2s)."

"Not what you were expecting?" Odo asked snidely, but Quark pocketed it anyway. "That is not yours."

"A dead vendor doesn't demand money. Rule of acquisition..."

"Number 250. Yes, I know." Odo pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just take this tricorder. I've set it up to scan for the bomb components. You scan the port side of the hall and I'll scan the starboard side. Between the two of us perhaps we'll find the bomb before we're all blown back to the wormhole."

Dutifully Quark accepted the tricorder and commenced scanning. He wasn't bad at these kinds of holonovels. He wanted holo-Odo to know that. He just did things a little differently, and that was something to keep in mind. He turned to tell Odo that, but Odo was frowning in concentration at his tricorder. He was like a grump-powered locomotive of justice. It made Quark smile and then give his own tricorder a practiced frown.

They made their way through the train, scanning each individual compartment and Jeffries tube and every humanoid person that crossed their path. If only being a deputy was always like this, Quark thought, he might have been more open to being deputized on DS9. It was actually kind of exciting to be on the other end of the chase. 

As he was reflecting on this and scanning down a particularly sweaty lunarian, Odo's tricorder began beeping aggressively.

"That's it," Odo said, and sprinted away down the hall.

"I guess you're in the clear," Quark told the lunarian and began to run after Odo. "Wait! Wait, I have short legs..."

The train clattered over a particularly uneven bit of rail and he took a tumble straight into Odo. Odo didn't seem fazed. He held his tricorder out to a luggage compartment. It beeped louder and faster than ever.

"This is it," he said. Even though he was obviously trying to hide it Quark could hear the excitement in his voice. "The bomb is in here."

"So what are you waiting for?" Quark asked. "Open it."

He did. He threw open the door and a wave of white and lace came crashing down upon them. In the mess Quark lost sight of Odo for a moment but his hand brushed Odo's leg and he wrapped his arms around him and held on for dear life. The wave swept past them and he could see now what it was that had come from the luggage compartment. He looked around at the sea of white that now surrounded them and he grinned from ear to ear.

"What?" Odo looked sharply in one direction and then another. "What, what..."

"Bustiers," Quark marveled. "Bustiers as far as the eye can see."

And he squeezed Odo's leg as tight as he could. He'd never have imagined in a hundred millennia how happy he'd be to see a bunch of outdated undergarments, but Odo had listened after all. He'd been listening all along.

"I don't know what those are," holo-Odo growled. He turned back to the luggage compartment and inside sat what was definitely not a bustier. "I do know what that is, though. That is a bomb."

He set to work defusing it but Quark hardly even noticed. His one eye felt a little itchy but he hardly noticed that too. He rubbed at it with his sleeve and looked up at holo-Odo, who was frowning harder than ever and working frantically at the bomb. "How's it going?"

"Going? Going? Ideally it wouldn't be going anywhere, although if I make a mistake and clip the wrong wire..." And as he said it a wire detached and he flinched and Quark hung on tight. Nothing exploded.

"Is that good?" Quark ventured to ask.

"I... think so." Odo oozed back from the bomb, puddling down beside Quark. "For now, at least. But we have to start looking for the bomb maker now. There's still a lot of work to be done. And we still haven't figured out where the ambassador or the sehlat figure into it." He sighed and gazed around at the carpet of bustiers. "Or the... those things."

"Does everything have to fit?" Quark wondered, taking the snowglobe from his pocket and giving it a good winding.

Odo rolled his eyes. "Well, that is the point to the holonovel, is it not?"

The snowglobe started to play and Quark set it down and smiled and smiled.

Odo turned to give him a questioning look and Quark bumped his forehead against Odo's.

"I'm unconvinced," he said, and when he smiled Odo smiled too and that was probably the best part of all


End file.
